Anti zero-COVID protesters face police in Beijing (Image: Tass/Sipa USA)

Bubbling anger in China over President Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policies has exploded into small but unusually voluble street protests in a raft of major cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu and Nanjing — and the nation’s social media platforms are seeing a concerted storm of protest that censors are working overtime to delete.

The unrest comes only a month after Xi cemented his grip on power with a third five-year term atop the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

The catalyst for the protests appears to have been a horrific apartment fire in the city of Ürümqi in Xinjiang, where at least 10 people died, including three children — reports are circling online that the deaths occurred because people couldn’t get out of the building because of pandemic lockdown measures. Xinjiang has been particularly targeted with lockdowns as part of the government’s repressive policies there, home to the Muslim Uyghurs — although these days Ürümqi is far more ethnically Han Chinese.

Localised protests in China, known as “mass incidents”, are common, and more common before the pandemic took hold. But the unusual feature of these at the weekend was its national as well as local characteristics. There have been mounting protests in China over zero-COVID all year as mass testing, strict quarantines and snap lockdowns continue in city, suburb, street and blocks.

Some protesters have gone so far as to offer vocal criticism of the CCP, shouting “Xi Jinping, step down”, “We want freedom” and “Xinjiang, end lockdown”. Some brandished blank pieces of white paper — a traditional sign of protest. Multiple people inside China have reported the protests are aimed at zero-COVID and the repressive policies enforcing that policy.

However, the two are increasingly interlinked, and herein lies the danger for the CCP. So far the protests, while loud and unusually provocative, have been small, and many have been limited to universities and university students.

It’s tempting to draw comparisons with the 1989 protests around the country that led up to the massacre in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. But it is far too early to assume how widespread they may develop — let alone whether anyone will organise mass protests. Tiananmen Square was a culmination of six months of far greater coordinated dissent, and China is a very different place than it was 33 years ago, and its apparatus of state security is infinitely more sophisticated and effective.

China’s zero-COVID policy is limiting freedoms and forcing people to deal with deprivations and deaths of family and relatives in oppressive conditions. It’s also affecting the economy — already down to its lowest growth level in decades — and the livelihoods of Chinese people. And the slowdown of the world’s second-largest economy is a significant contributor to the global economic malaise.

Authorities have resorted to propaganda, mounting a fear campaign about the virus that has included regularly highlighting the numbers of deaths and infections in other countries. This has created a double-edged sword for the government, where the public has become disproportionately fearful of the virus. For example, in the northern metropolis of Hebei province’s Shijiazhuang last week, “confusion and panic” spread after mandatory PCR testing was relaxed.

Still, despite China’s internet being controlled and censored by authorities, that the rest of the world has adapted to living with the virus — for better or worse — is known widely.

It may be no small coincidence that protests have broken out during the World Cup (soccer is wildly popular in China), where games have been broadcast showing maskless fans. This has even resulted in Chinese broadcasters cutting footage showing fans.

Xi is in a bind. He and his team face the challenge of transitioning to sustainably living with COVID while also responding to the protests. This will require some nuance — hardly the CCP’s strong suit — and as much as it wants to ease out of zero-COVID, China does not have the mRNA vaccines that offer the best protection. (However, Chinese companies appeared to be on the verge of having some approved.) There is also vaccine hesitancy among older people because they have lived through decades of botched vaccines. 

In the end, it may just be that the protests have done the government in Beijing a favour, allowing it to relax zero-COVID somewhat without having all the blame for a rising death toll sheeted home to it. But that’s only if the protests can be brought under control without too much political damage.